{"id":10221,"date":"2008-10-30T18:10:39","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T23:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10221"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:17","slug":"lawyer-miscellany-and-miss-savage-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/10\/30\/lawyer-miscellany-and-miss-savage-too\/","title":{"rendered":"lawyer miscellany (and Miss Savage, too)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/newport_2_2_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10225\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/newport_2_2_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"91\" height=\"79\" \/><\/a> <strong><em>J<\/em><\/strong>ust a few lawyer quickies, before the main attraction below (two more photos of <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/10\/23\/wendy-savage-wendy-savage\/\">Wendy Savage, Esq.<\/a> you won&#8217;t find in the Beautiful Lawyers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beautifullawyers.com\/\">Calendar<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>He Said\/She Sad<\/em><\/strong>: At first impression, the headline and article made me think an injustice had been done to the divorcing wife of Long Island matrimonial lawyer Alan K. Hirschhorn, and a fiduciary obligation breached: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.com\/jsp\/article.jsp?id=1202425651343&amp;rss=newswire\">Attorney Husband Who Misled Wife About [Separation Agreement] Change Gets Benefit of Original Agreement<\/a>&#8221;\u00a0 (<em>New York Law Journal<\/em>\/Law.com, Oct. 30, 2008).\u00a0 At his estranged wife&#8217;s request, the husband had struck through a cohabitation clause in their signed separation agreement, although he knew the modification would not be valid without a more formal procedure.\u00a0 His wife had been unrepresented. Hirschhorn had in fact continued paying maintenance $1000 a week after her boyfriend moved into her condo, out of love and respect for their daughter.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">However, the 23-page opinion in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nylawyer.com\/adgifs\/decisions\/103008brown.pdf\"><em>A.K.H. v. B.H<\/em><\/a> (N.Y. Supreme Court for Nassau County, Index #200306\/07, October 28, 2008) convinced me that the Justice Jeffrey S. Brown ruled correctly &#8212; and that I should have remembered from my law practice to hear at least three sides of a domestic law controversy before coming to a conclusion. There are far too many facts and reasons to detail here.\u00a0 Primarily, Judge Brown found the husband&#8217;s testimony on many key issues to be far more credible than the wife&#8217;s.\u00a0 There was no basis for an equitable estoppell, because &#8220;The court finds that she did not suffer any damages and did not rely to her detriment due to the elimination of the cohabitation clause.&#8221;\u00a0 And:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">&#8220;The issue of whether the plaintiff breached a fiduciary duty is not before this Court because defendant failed to plead a counterclaim to dismiss the complaint on the basis of overreaching. . . . Her testimony reveals that she, in fact, wants a divorce but also wants continued maintenance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2008\/10\/30\/dont%20be%20an%20asshole.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2008\/10\/30\/dont%20be%20an%20asshole.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"70\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a> Click on that little desk calendar to see Elie Mystal&#8217;s hard-to-follow advice for lawyers who would like to avoid being fired. See &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2008\/10\/sullcrom_douchebag_associate.php\">How to get fired from Sullivan &amp; Cromwell (Part 1)<\/a>&#8221; (<em>Above the Law<\/em>, Oct. 30, 2008)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em> A<\/em><\/strong>s Michael B. told us in <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/10\/09\/more-scary-halloween-laws-against-sex-offenders\/#comment-202127\">a comment<\/a> this afternoon, and according to the Associated Press, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ky3.com\/news\/local\/33601949.html\">Missouri&#8217;s sex offender\/Halloween law is again enforceable<\/a>&#8221; (Ky3.com, Oct. 30, 2008): &#8220;The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a one-sentence stay on Thursday, sought by Gov. Matt Blunt and Nixon.&#8221;\u00a0 This means that, despite the injunction issued on Oct. 28th by the Federal District Court against two vague provisions in the law, registered sex offenders must remain inside their homes from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday unless they need to work or have a medical emergency, and may not participate in Halloween activities. See our prior post in &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/10\/09\/more-scary-halloween-laws-against-sex-offenders\/\">more scary Halloween laws against sex offenders<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>I<\/em><\/strong>n the recent <em>Washington Post<\/em> article &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/10\/19\/AR2008101901397.html?referrer=emailarticle\">Rethinking Legal Fees for Lean Times<\/a>&#8221; (October 20, 2008), we&#8217;re told that &#8220;The economic crisis is giving the prosecution a boost in the case of <em>Fixed Fees v. Billable Hours<\/em>.&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s great that clients are putting more pressure on lawyers to reduce fees and be more efficient.\u00a0 I think it&#8217;s pretty clear, as we&#8217;ve been <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/08\/18\/broadening-the-hourly-billing-debate-consider-yourself-your-clients\/\">saying for years<\/a>, that most clients want more certainty, but expect fixed fees to be <em>lower than hourly fees<\/em>, not &#8212; as the Value Pricing folks assert &#8212; premium fees that let the lawyers make more profits while making higher profits. As Susan Hackett, general counsel of the Association of Corporate Counsel notes, with the economic crisis, &#8220;There&#8217;s going to be a heck of a lot of directives for folks at the firms to lower their costs.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">As Carolyn <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myshingle.com\/2008\/10\/articles\/marketing-making-money\/hey-lawyers-what-ever-happened-to-value-billing-for-legal-services\/\">Elefant has stressed often<\/a>, &#8220;it&#8217;s not the pricing mechanisms that make legal fees unreasonable&#8230;it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myshingle.com\/2007\/07\/articles\/marketing-making-money\/the-problem-with-the-billable-houror-the-problem-with-lawyers\/\">how we lawyers use them<\/a>.&#8221;\u00a0 Whatever the mechanism, clients deserve the benefits of competition and efficiency &#8212; and that includes price competition.\u00a0 I like the reaction, in the <em>WaPo<\/em> article, of D.C. solo Joel P. Bennett, to the suggestion that hourly billing means &#8220;that outside firms are spending unnecessary amounts of time on their matters.&#8221;\u00a0 Bennett says: &#8220;An honest lawyer works efficiently and does not charge clients for inefficient use of time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2007\/07\/graphclimb.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-7790\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2007\/07\/graphclimb.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"50\" height=\"42\" \/><\/a><em><strong> N<\/strong><\/em>o, we can&#8217;t match the weblog traffic numbers of the <a href=\"http:\/\/taxprof.typepad.com\/taxprof_blog\/2008\/10\/law-prof-blog-rankings.html\">most popular law professors<\/a> (via Ambrogi at <a href=\"http:\/\/legalblogwatch.typepad.com\/legal_blog_watch\/2008\/10\/the-hottest-law.html\"><em>LegalBlogWatch<\/em><\/a>).\u00a0Glenn Reynolds at <a href=\"http:\/\/pajamasmedia.com\/instapundit\/\">InstaPundit<\/a> had almost 90 million visitors over the last twelve months, with 13 million visiting <a href=\"http:\/\/hughhewitt.townhall.com\/blog\">Hugh Hewitt<\/a>, and 10 million stopping at the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.volokh.com\/\">The Volokh Conspiracy<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But, our crafty old <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/prof-yabuts-favorites\">Prof. Yabut<\/a> has discovered what brings more than enough eyes to <em>f\/k\/a<\/em> &#8212; images or discussion of the now famous Boston corporate-finance lawyer, Wendy Savage.\u00a0 (for more see <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/10\/23\/wendy-savage-wendy-savage\/\">this post<\/a> and the links therein)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">.. <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/myre.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10226\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/myre-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"271\" \/><\/a> .. <strong><em>Wendy from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myredesigns.com\/spring-summer-launch-party.html\">Myre Designs<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em><strong>Wendy at Newport, Summer 2008 . . <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/newport_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10223\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/newport_2-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>..<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to Wendy Savage for sharing these photos with the <em>f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang and the readers of <em>f\/k\/a<\/em>. (Hey, you <em>are<\/em> still coming here for the one-breath poetry and breathless punditry, aren&#8217;t you?)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><strong><em>afterwords<\/em><\/strong> (Oct. 31, 2008): Today, at <em>The Docket<\/em>, the news weblog of <em>Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly<\/em>, Julia Reischel writes \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.masslawyersweekly.com\/news\/2008\/10\/31\/15-minutes-of-beautiful-lawyer-fame\/\">15 Minutes of Beautiful Lawyer fame<\/a>,\u201d where she states a truth that\u2019s plain to see: \u201cWendy Savage, the in-house insurance lawyer who graces the cover of the calendar, is really the one responsible for turning the product into an Internet phenomenon.\u201d\u00a0 Julia also noticed that <em>f\/k\/a<\/em> has &#8220;unabashedly capitalized on the Wendy Savage craze.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong><em>follow-up<\/em><\/strong> (Nov. 3, 2008): Capitalizing himself on the Wendy Savage phenomenon, Bob Ambrogi posted &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/legalblogwatch.typepad.com\/legal_blog_watch\/2008\/11\/mild-mannered-b.html\">Mild-Mannered Blawger Gets Savage<\/a>&#8221; today at <em>Legal Blog Watch<\/em>. Like Julia at <em>The Docket<\/em>, Bob has noticed that <em>f\/k\/a<\/em> has taken a dreamy detour into Wendy World.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\">turning &#8217;round<br \/>\njust missing a pretty woman&#8230;<br \/>\nwillow tree<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">virtue beyond virtue<br \/>\nbeauty beyond beauty&#8230;<br \/>\njust a poppy!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\">lovely &#8212;<br \/>\nthe sky after a lark<br \/>\nhas sung<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 120px\">lovely&#8211;<br \/>\nin the leftover snow<br \/>\nboth handprints<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 120px\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 30px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/files\/2008\/10\/savagecalendar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"67\" height=\"75\" \/> it&#8217;s so pretty!<br \/>\nso pretty!<br \/>\nthe poison mushroom<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;padding-left: 60px\">&#8230; by <a href=\"http:\/\/haikuguy.com\/issa\">Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a few lawyer quickies, before the main attraction below (two more photos of Wendy Savage, Esq. you won&#8217;t find in the Beautiful Lawyers Calendar): He Said\/She Sad: At first impression, the headline and article made me think an injustice had been done to the divorcing wife of Long Island matrimonial lawyer Alan K. Hirschhorn, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,3513,1414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-lawyer-news-or-ethics","category-qs-quickies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2ER","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12135,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions\/12135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}